


after all these years you are

by peekapeekaboo



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: 2014 Winter Olympics, Canon Compliant, F/F, Olympics, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 13:04:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12888468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peekapeekaboo/pseuds/peekapeekaboo
Summary: Mao still remembers when she first saw Yuna skate all those years ago.





	after all these years you are

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a ficfest that never actually happened like a year and a half ago, but this is for Dani! Hope it was at least somewhat what you wanted❤

_2005._

They meet during practice for a competition, when Yuna settles into the seat next to Mao to undo her laces - not that Mao purposely headed to the rink early to catch Yuna’s practice or anything, she had nothing better to do, okay. It’s just that she’d fallen in love with Yuna(‘s skating) the first time they competed against each other a few months ago, and she’d dreamt of seeing the fire with her own eyes again ever since. 

“Do you have a crush on me or something?” Yuna asks, settling next to Mao to undo her laces. 

“Wha - what?” 

“I mean, you keep staring at me, not just during practice but during the draw, too.” Yuna glances up at her and hides a laugh when she sees Mao’s open mouth. “I’m Yuna, Yuna Kim - you’re Mao, right?”

“Yeah, it’s - It’s nice to finally meet you! I’ve heard so much about you,” Mao stutters, still panicking that she’d somehow been found out already. 

“Only good things, right?” Yuna asks. Mao thinks she might be a little dizzy-drunk on Yuna’s smile and they’ve only just met, damn it. “Don’t you need to practice?” 

“Oh, practice, right.“ Mao tears her gaze away from Yuna for a second and immediately catches her coach’s knowing stare. “I’ll see you around?” 

“Yeah, of course.”

 

Later, when Mao steps off the ice after her winning free program, she spots Yuna watching her at the boards still in her dress and skates. 

“So we’re even, then?” Mao’s not usually this confident when talking to her competition-slash-crushes but she figures it must be the leftover adrenaline from her free skate. 

Yuna tilts her head a little and frowns. “What do you mean?” 

“I definitely saw you watching me for the past couple of days, so we’re even, right? You have a crush on me too?” Mao giggles, mostly at herself for actually saying it out loud. She turns away and her head’s still in the clouds - due to the excitement of competing or seeing Yuna, she can’t tell.

But Mao doesn’t see that Yuna’s eyes stay on her back until she disappears. She doesn’t see that Yuna’s smiling too, doesn’t hear when Yuna whispers a little affirmative “yes” to herself, hoping that maybe fate could allow their paths cross again.

_2010._

In the back room before the medal ceremony, Mao finds Yuna again. They’re both a few inches taller, more aware of their bodies, rounder in their lines, and now have Olympic medals to their names. She briefly wonders if Yuna still remembers their conversation all those years ago, before the media and drama of competition separated their paths and pitted them in the rivalry of their generation - she definitely remembers, right? 

Either way, Mao takes a breath and taps her shoulder. “Amazing skate out there.” 

Yuna looks up and surprise flashes across her face. “Thanks - you too!” She says, as one of the staff come in the room to usher them out back to the rink for the medal ceremony. “You were beautiful, as always.” 

Yuna’s eyes linger on Mao before the medal ceremony begins, as they do later on during the press conference, the exhibition practice, in the Olympic Village. Mao thinks that maybe after it’s all over, they can finally find each other. _You were beautiful_ , she hears. _As always._

_2014._

After years of standing on podiums together, it ends with Mao watching Yuna stand on the last podium of her competitive career. Never will they compete on the same ice again. The world will miss Yuna, Mao knows, but perhaps not the same way she will. Who else has she grown up with, that has experienced it all with her? 

And when Mao sends Yuna an invite to The Ice 2014 on a whim, she knows that she could never come. She just hopes that Yuna knows that after all these years, Mao still can’t quite forget the fire that first drew her to Yuna when they were fourteen years old, too naive to have foreseen the pain and struggle that awaited them.

So when Yuna accepts and arrives in Nagano at the beginning of July for rehearsals, Mao isn’t sure what to make of it. Mao’s busy, or so she believes, so she can’t seem to find the opportunity to talk to Yuna.

But this time, it’s Yuna that finds Mao again, during a lull in group choreography practice. She digs her toepicks into the ice and sinks to Mao’s level with her back on the wall. “I never got to say a proper thank you for inviting me to your show - I’ve always wanted to do it,” Yuna says, eyes watching makeshift ice dance team Buttle/Abbott parody Meryl and Charlie’s free dance with a little upturn of her lips. 

 

“It’s my pleasure,” Mao replies. “I’m glad you could make it.” Does she remember? 

“But there’s one thing I’ve always wondered about, all these years.” Yuna turns towards Mao, chin resting on her knuckles.

“What is it?”

A smile plays on Yuna’s lips, but her eyes are on Mao’s. “You still have that crush on me?” 

So she remembers, and Mao feels the little pocket in her heart where she’d hidden the memory of their conversation from all those years ago glow and burst and do a hundred perfect triple flip-triple loop combinations. “Why?” She breaks into a smile. “Do you have one on me too?” 

Nine years and dozens of medals later, they’re fourteen again and it’s like they were never apart. 

Yuna pushes off from the wall and stretches out a hand to her as Jeffrey gathers the skaters together again to go over the group choreo. Mao takes it, and finally they have found each other again.

After all these years, finally, Mao feels Yuna’s fire for herself, and Yuna whispers of Mao’s beauty to her heart’s desire. After all these years, years of sprinting down the same path but never close enough to each other, Mao and Yuna are hand in hand. 

_After all these years, you’re still the love of my life._


End file.
